Fifteen Minutes Of Fame

Gary Morston
XXX West 141st Street
New York, NY 10031
May 10, 1995

Dear Gary:

I guess Andy Warhol was right--everybody will be famous for 15 minutes. That article about you in the June issue of Essence was your 15 minutes of fame. I was glad to see it. All these years I've been wondering what happened to you. The last time I remember seeing you, you were living in Brooklyn and working the counter at the Oscar Wilde bookstore.

You may remember that we first met through a personal ad your friends placed in the New York Native. That was in 1983. I later ran into you at that year's Gay Pride Parade on, I believe, Weehawken Street [in Greenwich Village].

The strange thing about the article is that it never mentions you as a gay man, which is how I remember you identifying yourself. In the article you're quoted as saying "not many women have shied away when they learn I'm a single dad." Maybe you were bisexual all the time. Maybe you didn't want to out yourself in a national magazine. Anyway, I'm glad you're alive and well and parenting.

I hope we can stay in touch (my number is on the reverse side, which is a copy of a call for submissions flyer for a book of essays that will be published in the fall of this year. I started editing the book two years ago. [The book was Fighting Words, which was published in 1999 by Avon Books.] I always enjoyed our phone conversations, especially about education. [Gary was a schoolteacher.] The name Piaget (correct spelling?), the guy who was an education theorist, always brings you to mind because you were the first one who told me about him.

Say hello to your son Corinthian for me.

Sincerely yours,

Charles Michael Smith